A Korean Streak.

The most often guessed nationality that locals around here suppose me to be is Korean.  I get a bit miffed at this suggestion, something to do with my pride in thinking that I at least should be accepted as some sort of Chinese.

In reality living here is my second longest streak of Korean culture.  I think it's funny that my Korean colleagues and I are reduced to communicating in the local language to each other, which for both of us is either our second or third+ language.  Try that on for size sometime.

This is the most kimchee I've eaten consistently at any point of time in my life, earning the admiration of my Korean counterparts.  And certainly this is the first time I've been exposed to the world of Korean soaps, as I find myself starting to watch the "Full House" series that AC has already completed.  The locals have really caught on to Korean culture, too.  Case in point: the screaming teenagers at the local high school the other week when a group of Korean dancers came to perform--further convincing me that I'm so not cool as I sat there in the first row motionless while all the teenagers clapped, gasped, and got out their cell phone cameras to memorialize the moment.

But I reserve my favorite Korean cultural anecdote for the end of this entry.  One of my Korean female colleagues recently hooked up with another Korean male colleague who had first come in the summer on a short term, but came back "wei le ta (for the sake of her)," as my other Korean colleague described.  Apparently when he met her in the summer he was so smitten he decided to haul right back here a couple of months later.  Within two weeks they were going out.  "But what if he didn't succeed?" I had asked.  But the guy risked it, and I give him props.